PS Emperor of India in September
1950 laid up in the Backwater. On the promenade deck the varnished seats have
been piled up and packed away under a tarpaulin to protect them from the
elements, the lifeboat falls have been removed to be stored undercover and the
ship's ropes hang over the starboard rail to keep them aired and so ward off the
onset of rot.

PS Monarch with much scaffolding
erected for the replacement of her inner funnel in January 1959.

The Cosens slipway waiting for PS
Consul .................

..............now hauled out in January
1960.

Consul's lovely wooden bridge in
April 1963. The tank on the right was for a special fire extinguishing
foam which could be flooded into the boiler room in the event of a fire. The
halyards this side of it were for hauling the second steaming light onto a crane
on the forward side of the funnel - a device which provided a cheaper
alternative to fitting a second mast for the light.

Note the brass handrail up to the bridge
has been wrapped in a sacking bandage to protect it from winter.

PS Embassy in the Backwater in
March 1967 shortly before she was towed away for scrapping to Belgium.
Prior to the 1966 season the light regulations changed and the second steaming
light had to be fixed a greater height above the deck than before so Embassy
lost her funnel crane and instead acquired a gigantic, and rather out of
proportion, main mast which was taller than her foremast thereby giving her the
rather odd appearance of a sort of schooner rig without the sails! By this stage in
her career the for'ard side of the wheelhouse had been re-fashioned in plywood
as the original timber, fitted in 1946, had started to rot.

This was Weymouth more than
half a century ago when laid up, slumbering paddle steamers were a constant
presence providing a tantalising daily
reminder of the prospect of enchanting trips waiting to be had next season to Swanage,
Bournemouth, Totland Bay Isle of Wight, Lulworth Cove, Round the Warships in
Portland Harbour and many more along the lovely Dorset Coast.

Or as it turned out, not to be had, as
by the end of the 1960s all these paddle steamers had gone leaving
a void and sense of emptiness in the Weymouth Harbour winter scene for years to
come.